The Houston Astros and Cincy Redlegs engaged in a series chock full of pitching and defense and just enough offense. However, Houston did it much better than the Dickities and it allowed them to sweep the first three games at the MMPUS and send off the good guys to a six game road trip on a high note. Hey Scraps, this committment to pitching and defense to win ballgames thingy... just might work... BRILLIANT!
It was Sparky Oswalt's turn to handle the Reds, and he did just enough to register his first win of the season and his 12th career win (against no loses) over these same Rojo Nine. While he was not sharp by Oswalt-ian standards, he was able to minimize damage against himself with some great clutch pitching in tight situations. There is no better example of Oswalt's bear down and get the outs attitude on this day as the third inning when he left Adam Dunn stranded at third with no outs. Dunn had crushed a high fastball apparently into the first row of seats in dead right field. The ball rocketed out to right and caroumed off the seats so fast, the umpires did not have a chance to look to see if it went out so it appeared more like a ball hitting off the wall. It scored Cincy's second run and it looked like Sparky was in for some big time trouble. But he got both Willy Mo Pena and Jason LaRue to ground out meekly and then he disposed of Felipe Lopez to end the threat and the visitors never mounted any semblance of a rally again for the day.
Meanwhile, Houston used it's speed game yet again to tie the score. The Astros had taken a 1-0 lead in the first on PigPen's first shibby of the year. A Crawford Box special to the delight of the locals and the utter disdain of the rest of the MLB fandom. WFW! After a Willy Mo tater tied it and the aforementioned Dunn triple plated a run in the person of "The Joker" Randa who had walked before him, Houston mounted it's offensive surge to pull ahead for good. This time it came by way of The Franchise Chris Burke and his tremendous wheels. He beat out an infield single that by all indications should've been an easy out to short. Nice hustle by Burke, verrah nice. Franchise scooted to third on a Chango single to right, and then scored on a Groundskeeper Willy sac fly to medium deep center. He ran in so quickly, he scored standing up easily. Houston scored it's last three runs on a GIMP two run yack and a Moberg solo shot right after. Scrap Iron's pitching and defense took over after that and the sweep was registered just as soon as The Pontiff took the hill inn the 9th to rule once again. I can get used to this kind of baseball, verrah nice!
Houston now travels to New York for a four day, three game series with the Metropolitans. Hmmmm... must be a broadway show tour scheduled in that trip somewhere. Bud Pettitte takes the pill for Houston on Monday to do battle with the Sneviling Woman Glavine in a noon time home opener at Shea Stadium.
